last night Etty and Sam manned the night shift at the hospital . . . Etty called my mom in the morning to share the next batch of good news -- my dad, at some point during the night, had pulled out his respirator (way to show a little spunk!). the nurses, who had already been weaning him off the respirator bit by bit yesterday, decided that they could just leave the respirator out. they also took him off the sedatives and decreased the saline solution used to stop the swelling in the brain. the results of this morning's CT scan also showed a continued decrease in swelling. his blood pressure and heart rate are now at a healthy, steady level.
this morning he was awake and responsive, squeezing our hands and looking at us. he pointed to some food he saw, so this morning, for the first time since before the brain surgery, he was able to eat a bit!
the nurses are hoping that if things continue at this rate, that he will be out of ICU tomorrow sometime, which would allow us all to breath a little easier . . . these last few days have been SO encouraging for all of us, especially as we get to see my dad come around again, and show signs of being himself. keep the prayers up! pretty soon we'll be faced with the decision of where to take my dad for rehabilitation, a big decision for us. but right now we're just moving a day at a time, excited with the great progress we've been seeing.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
-- James 1:17